Accurate elevation data in coastal wetlands is crucial for planning for sea-level rise. Elevation surveys were conducted across southwest Florida wetlands to provide ground validation of LiDAR as well as target long-term monitoring stations (surface elevation tables). Surveys were conducted in June 2021 across Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Clam Bay, Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge. A combination of post-processed kinematic GPS and differential levelling survey techniques were employed, depending on the canopy cover.

These datasets were created from high-resolution (1-m) datasets representing median conditions during a 2014-2019 time period. These datasets used National Agricultural Inventory Program (NAIP) imagery, as well as Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, to estimate the fractional composition of unvegetated, vegetated, and water in each pixel. Random samples from these high resolution datasets were used to inform calibration and validation of the moderate resolution (30-m) Landsat datasets. To facilitate comparability with the Landsat datasets, these data were aggregated up to 30-m resolution.

Wetland restoration efforts conducted by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in Louisiana rely on monitoring efforts to determine the efficacy of these efforts. The Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) was developed to assist in a multiple-reference approach that uses aspects of hydrogeomorphic functional assessments and probabilistic sampling for monitoring. The CRMS program includes a suite of approximately 390 sites that encompass the range of hydrological and ecological conditions for each stratum. As part of CRMS, land and water classifications are created from Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) approximately every three years at all CRMS sites. A DOQQ is a raster image in which displacement in the image caused by sensor orientation and terrain relief has been removed and combines the image characteristics of a photo with geometric qualities of a map. The DOQQs generated for this project consist of 2016 Color Infrared (CIR) Digital Imagery. These images were classified into land and water categories using a threshold of the near infrared (NIR) band, followed by supervised and unsupervised classification. Initial classification results are then reviewed by multiple image analysts to identify and manually recode errors. The final land-water classifications are intended to serve as both geographic and quantitative assessments of landscape composition on the date of acquisition. Three previous assessments have been conducted (2005, 2008, and 2012). Once the program creates enough data points for statistical analyses, these data will be used for land area change rate calculation.

Wetland restoration efforts conducted by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in Louisiana rely on monitoring efforts to determine the efficacy of these efforts. The Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) was developed to assist in a multiple-reference approach that uses aspects of hydrogeomorphic functional assessments and probabilistic sampling for monitoring. The CRMS program includes a suite of approximately 390 sites that encompass the range of hydrological and ecological conditions for each stratum. As part of CRMS, land and water classifications are created from Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) approximately every three years at all CRMS sites. A DOQQ is a raster image in which displacement in the image caused by sensor orientation and terrain relief has been removed and combines the image characteristics of a photo with geometric qualities of a map. The DOQQs generated for this project consist of 2016 Color Infrared (CIR) Digital Imagery. These images were classified into land and water categories using a threshold of the near infrared (NIR) band, followed by supervised and unsupervised classification. Initial classification results are then reviewed by multiple image analysts to identify and manually recode errors. The final land-water classifications are intended to serve as both geographic and quantitative assessments of landscape composition on the date of acquisition. Three previous assessments have been conducted (2005, 2008, and 2012). Once the program creates enough data points for statistical analyses, these data will be used for land area change rate calculation.

Wetland restoration efforts conducted by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in Louisiana rely on monitoring efforts to determine the efficacy of these efforts. The Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) was developed to assist in a multiple-reference approach that uses aspects of hydrogeomorphic functional assessments and probabilistic sampling for monitoring. The CRMS program includes a suite of approximately 390 sites that encompass the range of hydrological and ecological conditions for each stratum. As part of CRMS, land and water classifications are created from Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) approximately every three years at all CRMS sites. A DOQQ is a raster image in which displacement in the image caused by sensor orientation and terrain relief has been removed and combines the image characteristics of a photo with geometric qualities of a map. The DOQQs generated for this project consist of 2016 Color Infrared (CIR) Digital Imagery. These images were classified into land and water categories using a threshold of the near infrared (NIR) band, followed by supervised and unsupervised classification. Initial classification results are then reviewed by multiple image analysts to identify and manually recode errors. The final land-water classifications are intended to serve as both geographic and quantitative assessments of landscape composition on the date of acquisition. Three previous assessments have been conducted (2005, 2008, and 2012). Once the program creates enough data points for statistical analyses, these data will be used for land area change rate calculation.

Wetland restoration efforts conducted by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in Louisiana rely on monitoring efforts to determine the efficacy of these efforts. The Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) was developed to assist in a multiple-reference approach that uses aspects of hydrogeomorphic functional assessments and probabilistic sampling for monitoring. The CRMS program includes a suite of approximately 398 sites that encompass the range of hydrological and ecological conditions for each stratum. As part of CRMS, land and water classifications are created from Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) approximately every three years at all CRMS sites. A DOQQ is a raster image in which displacement in the image caused by sensor orientation and terrain relief has been removed and combines the image characteristics of a photo with geometric qualities of a map. The DOQQs generated for this project consist of 2018 Color Infrared (CIR) Digital Imagery. These images were classified into land and water categories using a threshold of the near infrared (NIR) band, followed by supervised and unsupervised classification. Initial classification results are then reviewed by multiple image analysts to identify and manually recode errors. The final land-water classifications are intended to serve as both geographic and quantitative assessments of landscape composition on the date of acquisition. Four previous assessments have been conducted (2005, 2008, 2012, and 2015/2016). Once the program creates enough data points for statistical analyses, these data will be used for land area change rate calculation.

Wetland restoration efforts conducted by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in Louisiana rely on monitoring efforts to determine the efficacy of these efforts. The Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) was developed to assist in a multiple-reference approach that uses aspects of hydrogeomorphic functional assessments and probabilistic sampling for monitoring. The CRMS program includes a suite of approximately 390 sites that encompass the range of hydrological and ecological conditions for each stratum. As part of CRMS, land and water classifications are created from Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) approximately every three years at all CRMS sites. A DOQQ is a raster image in which displacement in the image caused by sensor orientation and terrain relief has been removed and combines the image characteristics of a photo with geometric qualities of a map. The DOQQs generated for this project consist of 2016 Color Infrared (CIR) Digital Imagery. These images were classified into land and water categories using a threshold of the near infrared (NIR) band, followed by supervised and unsupervised classification. Initial classification results are then reviewed by multiple image analysts to identify and manually recode errors. The final land-water classifications are intended to serve as both geographic and quantitative assessments of landscape composition on the date of acquisition. Three previous assessments have been conducted (2005, 2008, and 2012). Once the program creates enough data points for statistical analyses, these data will be used for land area change rate calculation.

Wetland restoration efforts conducted by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in Louisiana rely on monitoring efforts to determine the efficacy of these efforts. The Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) was developed to assist in a multiple-reference approach that uses aspects of hydrogeomorphic functional assessments and probabilistic sampling for monitoring. The CRMS program includes a suite of approximately 390 sites that encompass the range of hydrological and ecological conditions for each stratum. As part of CRMS, land and water classifications are created from Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) approximately every three years at all CRMS sites. A DOQQ is a raster image in which displacement in the image caused by sensor orientation and terrain relief has been removed and combines the image characteristics of a photo with geometric qualities of a map. The DOQQs generated for this project consist of 2016 Color Infrared (CIR) Digital Imagery. These images were classified into land and water categories using a threshold of the near infrared (NIR) band, followed by supervised and unsupervised classification. Initial classification results are then reviewed by multiple image analysts to identify and manually recode errors. The final land-water classifications are intended to serve as both geographic and quantitative assessments of landscape composition on the date of acquisition. Three previous assessments have been conducted (2005, 2008, and 2012). Once the program creates enough data points for statistical analyses, these data will be used for land area change rate calculation.

Wetland restoration efforts conducted by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in Louisiana rely on monitoring efforts to determine the efficacy of these efforts. The Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) was developed to assist in a multiple-reference approach that uses aspects of hydrogeomorphic functional assessments and probabilistic sampling for monitoring. The CRMS program includes a suite of approximately 398 sites that encompass the range of hydrological and ecological conditions for each stratum. As part of CRMS, land and water classifications are created from Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) approximately every three years at all CRMS sites. A DOQQ is a raster image in which displacement in the image caused by sensor orientation and terrain relief has been removed and combines the image characteristics of a photo with geometric qualities of a map. The DOQQs generated for this project consist of 2018 Color Infrared (CIR) Digital Imagery. These images were classified into land and water categories using a threshold of the near infrared (NIR) band, followed by supervised and unsupervised classification. Initial classification results are then reviewed by multiple image analysts to identify and manually recode errors. The final land-water classifications are intended to serve as both geographic and quantitative assessments of landscape composition on the date of acquisition. Four previous assessments have been conducted (2005, 2008, 2012, and 2015/2016). Once the program creates enough data points for statistical analyses, these data will be used for land area change rate calculation.

Wetland restoration efforts conducted by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in Louisiana rely on monitoring efforts to determine the efficacy of these efforts. The Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) was developed to assist in a multiple-reference approach that uses aspects of hydrogeomorphic functional assessments and probabilistic sampling for monitoring. The CRMS program includes a suite of approximately 390 sites that encompass the range of hydrological and ecological conditions for each stratum. As part of CRMS, land and water classifications are created from Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) approximately every three years at all CRMS sites. A DOQQ is a raster image in which displacement in the image caused by sensor orientation and terrain relief has been removed and combines the image characteristics of a photo with geometric qualities of a map. The DOQQs generated for this project consist of 2016 Color Infrared (CIR) Digital Imagery. These images were classified into land and water categories using a threshold of the near infrared (NIR) band, followed by supervised and unsupervised classification. Initial classification results are then reviewed by multiple image analysts to identify and manually recode errors. The final land-water classifications are intended to serve as both geographic and quantitative assessments of landscape composition on the date of acquisition. Three previous assessments have been conducted (2005, 2008, and 2012). Once the program creates enough data points for statistical analyses, these data will be used for land area change rate calculation.